THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



MAY, 1888. 

 THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK— PEESENT AND PROSPECTIVE. 



By Hon. DAVID A. WELLS. 



ECONOMIC DISTURBANCE SERIES No. VIII. 



PART III. 



ATTENTION is next asked to the second (assumed) cause 

 for the prevailing discontent of labor, namely : 



Changes in the character or nature of employments conse- 

 quent upon the introduction of new methods — inachinery or pr'o- 

 cesses — ivhich it is claimed have tended to lower the grade of 

 labor, impair the independence, and restrict the mental develop- 

 ment of the laborer. 



That such changes have been in the nature of evil, can not 

 be questioned ; but they are not new in character, nor as exten- 

 sive in number and effect as is popularly supposed. Subordi- 

 nation to routine and method is an essential element in all 

 systematized occupations; and in not a few employments and 

 professions — as in all military and naval life, and in navigation 

 and railroad work — an almost complete surrender of the inde- 

 pendence of the individual, and an unreasoning mechanical com- 

 pliance with rules or orders, are the indispensable conditions for 

 the attainment of any degree of successful effort. In very many 

 cases also the individual finds compensation for subordination 

 and the surrender of independence in the recognition that such 

 conditions may be but temporary, and are the necessary ante- 

 cedents for promotion ; and routine and monotony are doubtless 

 in a greater or less degree alleviated when the operative can 

 discern the plan of his work as an entirety, and note its result in 

 the form of finished products. But in manufacturing opera- 

 tions, where the division of labor has been carried to an extreme ; 



TOL. XIXIII. — 1 



